Sydney Morning Herald
MH17 crash fallout: world reacts to plane shot down in Ukraine
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11:02am: Earlier today Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on the ABC's Insiders program that he was personally touched by the tragedy because his daughters had flown on the MH17 some months ago on their way home from Europe. [ :EYEROLL: ]
"We can't let our emotions cloud our judgment but nevertheless these are wrenching times and there would hardly be an Australian who hasn't been emotionally touched by what we've seen, what we've felt over the last 48 hours or so," he said.
"You look at the faces of the dead and they're your neighbours, they're your friends, they could be your kids because let's face it, we are a people who like to travel and my own daughters flew on MH17 some months ago on their way home from Europe. So this is a tragedy which touches us deeply."
SOURCE - Sydney Morning Herald - here.
COMMENT
Abbott's really scraping the bottom of the barrel here, and so is ABC's Insiders program.
Is it a news program or is it a version of Oprah's afternoon show, for dwelling on vague 'could-have-been' fantasies and Abbott's delicately embroidered 'personal connection' to flight MH17.
Guess when Tony Abbott looks at the faces of those in Gaza getting killed, he doesn't see his daughters in Gaza -- or the faces of his 'neighbours', his 'friends' or his 'kids', so the killings in Gaza aren't at all 'personal' or material for Tony Abbott.
Or it could be Tony Abbott's political bias that's clouding his judgment:
Ms Sattler said Mr Abbott had no Jewish heritage, although she did.
"He is a raving Zionist and has been since he was about 18 or 19. I don't understand why he is, but he is," she said.
Ms Sattler said those who backed the PLO visit were beaten with rolled up newspapers and umbrellas and spat upon during the course of the conference.
She said this made a big impact on her as a 17-year-old activist.
"Thanks to Tony, I have been an avowed Palestine supporter ever since," she said
[SOURCE - The Australia - Nov 2012 - here.]
Here's the Abbott government's position on Gaza:
The Abbott government also challenged the defined legal status of East Jerusalem. ‘‘Occupied’’, Attorney-General George Brandis declared, was ‘‘neither appropriate nor useful’’, and reference to historic events was ‘‘unhelpful’’. In ignoring history, Brandis demonstrates why Australia’s stance lacks moral power. It is wilful blindness to ignore Israel’s expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland in 1948.
The Occupation – ‘‘with a capital O’’ which the Australian government declines to use – is directly linked to the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948 and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967. To argue history is ‘‘unhelpful’’ is to deny the Palestinian narrative, expunge Palestinian pain and identity, and deflect attention from the legitimacy of a racial state.
One has to credit a military juggernaut and a covertly nuclear state for its success in framing itself as victim even as it bombs a largely defenceless population. Even as Israel plays warden over Gaza, which has been described as the world’s largest open-air prison, it perpetuates the myth that it is a state perpetually fighting for its survival.
[SOURCE - Sydney Morning Herald - here.]
The SMH Gaza article is worthwhile reading in full - here.
Getting back to the MH17 flight, which supposedly affects Abbott 'personally'.
Abbott's now the greatest mourner on the face of the planet, or so he would have us believe.
The sad fact is, this is about capitalising on a macabre opportunity:
a) to raise Abbott's profile because of his unpopular social security and medicare cuts (and his corporate boot-licking); and
b) to please Abbott's US masters, because they've invested a lot in Ukraine and they need all the leverage they can get to get things moving along for corporate America.
Tony Abbott ought to be ashamed of himself. But he's clearly incapable of it.
